Georgia Truck Accident Lawyers Blog

The media is abuzz after a 22-year-old woman survived a jump into Lake Lanier to avoid a Georgia semi accident.

It is one of the more courageous acts our Georgia trucking accident attorneys have encountered, and may well have saved the young woman's life. As we frequently report, the extreme weight of a tractor-trailer -- which can weight 20 times more than a 4,000-pound passenger car -- frequently results in fatal injuries to occupants of involved passenger cars.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reports more than 380,000 accidents involving large trucks claimed 4,229 lives in 2008. Of those, only 677 were truck occupants. The majority were victims in the other vehicle or non-occupants, including bicyclists and pedestrians.

In this case, the woman said she got out of her car following a fender-bender on Dawsonville Highway Bridge. She then saw the semi speeding toward her and knew the truck was going to hit her car and force it into her.

Instead, she jumped from the bridge. She said she felt she was in big trouble because she had so far to swim to get to shore. While she suffered some leg injuries and hypothermia, she may have avoid fatal injuries; the truck did indeed slam into her car on the bridge.

No charges have been filed and the case remains under investigation.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported the woman jumped about 40 feet. She had driven onto the icy bridge about 6:30 a.m. and was taking it easy when a car sideswiped her and knocked her into a concrete pillar.

The water was 40 degrees. Access North Georgia said the woman reported hearing the truck hit her car as she swam to shore. The Journal-Constitution said the truck avoided colliding with any vehicles on the bridge.